Prevalence of depression and its association with quality of life among guardians of hospitalized psychiatric patients during the COVID-19 pandemic: a network perspective

Development of a rapid screener through network analysis to identify central cognitive complaints in haemodialysis patients: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES

Cognitive impairments and cognitive complaints are commonly present in dialysis patients and can affect clinical, functional, occupational, and psychosocial well-being. It is important to screen for patients' cognitive status as it offers a gateway to specialty referral, prevention or rehabilitation programmes, and personalisation of clinical care. The Patient's Assessment of Own Functioning Inventory (PAOFI) is a comprehensive questionnaire that assesses patient-reported difficulties in memory, language, motor/sensory-perceptual skills and higher-level cognitive function. In the current study, we adopted network analysis to identify central cognitive complaints in dialysis patients and derived a PAOFI short form (PAOFI-SF) based on these core symptoms to improve screening efficiency in real-world renal settings.

DESIGN

Multicentre, cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Participants were recruited from 10 community-based dialysis centres in Singapore, from May to November 2022.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 369 eligible haemodialysis patients were invited to join the study, and 268 completed the measures (response rate 72.6%).

OUTCOME MEASURES

Cognitive assessment tools including the PAOFI and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment were administered.

RESULTS

Based on the PAOFI measure, 98 participants (36.6%) endorsed the presence of three or more complaints, indicating clinically significant cognitive complaints. Network analysis identified five central cognitive complaints among dialysis patients: problem-solving difficulty, difficulty following instructions, forgetting how to do tasks, difficulty being understood, and forgetting people known years ago. These core items were combined into a five-item short form of PAOFI, which showed good reliability and validity, and an area under the curve of 83.4% in identifying clinically significant cognitive complaints. The optimal cut-off point of the short form was 11.5 (out of 30), with a specificity of 89.5%, sensitivity of 63.9%, positive predictive value of 77.5% and negative predictive value of 81.4%. This cut-off point also predicted objective cognitive performance even after controlling for sociodemographic and clinical confounders.

CONCLUSIONS

Pending future replication and external validation, the PAOFI-SF may be suitable for use in renal care settings as an initial screening tool to identify patients with cognitive complaints and increased risk of objective cognitive impairments.

Anxiety's correlation with sleepiness and memory among security officers during the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND

In the working population especially among older adults, anxiety problems have grown dramatically. This element has a significant impact on employee absenteeism and problems with physical and mental health. It was widely known that security personnel had several physical and mental difficulties during their various work hours. It is important to investigate the effects of anxiety on them.

OBJECTIVE

The present study aims to provide insights into the prevalence of anxiety disorders and explore the correlations between anxiety symptoms, sleep, and memory during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

To conduct a cross-sectional study, 42 older adult participants between the ages of sixty to seventy years were chosen and the procedure was explained.Data were gathered by giving instructions on how to complete the self-reported Generalized Anxiety Disorder Assessment -7 (GAD-7), the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and the revised Everyday Memory Questionnaire.

RESULTS

A total of 36 out of 42 participants (85.71%) experienced moderate to severe anxiety. Anxiety and sleep had a correlation of 0.8, while anxiety and memory had a correlation of 0.87 with a positive EMQ-R relationship. Moreover, there was a statistically significant association between sleep and memory, with a positive correlation of 0.73.

CONCLUSION

The study concludes that, there is a substantial prevalence of anxiety accompanied by notable insomnia and memory problems in elderly security officers. Our findings indicate a clear relationship between sleep disturbances, memory issues, and most prevalent anxiety symptoms. These results emphasize the importance of incorporating mental health assessments and addressing an effective treatment for anxiety.